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Profile: Van Der Architects - Van Der Architects Japan K.k |
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Founded by Martin van der Linden in 2001, van der Architects practises architecture with offices in Tokyo and Amsterdam and strives for an architecture that is pragmatic, artistic and intellectual.
FURTHER DETAILS:
APPROACH: We believe that architecture is about movement within space. Our designs take full advantage of this mobility, and by doing so we craft an immersive experience through architecture, with constantly changing viewpoints. Our building materials are not limited to wood, metal and concrete. We also consider light, shadow, reflection, colour and silence to be crucial components. SPACE AND MOBILITY The French philosopher Merleau-Ponty once said that space exists because of our mobility. I believe that architecture should always start from this concept: a promise that unfolds around us as we move through space. In the beginning, architecture was nothing more than an enclosed area, a container of — and platform for — human activities. As such, architecture’s beginnings were rather pure and simple. But on a different level, there was another, higher promise of contextual sensitivity: our experience within the space. CONTEXT Our experience of space has always been filtered through context. Contextual factors such as geography, climate, weather, light, materials and the structure’s immediate surroundings have always posed creative limitations. Initially, architecture was created out of its immediate surroundings. For example, if you were to build a hut, you used the trees, mud, grass and stones that surrounded you. Because of this, early architecture was grouped into a village or collection of houses with a shared sameness, contextually. We can still see examples of this all around the world. CONSTRUCTION Due to technical advances, the contextual limitations of the past are becoming less and less influential: when it is dark, we switch on the light, and when it is cold, we turn on the heater. Construction has allowed us to create our own context. We as architects today are free to build anything, anywhere in almost any shape that we can dream up. It is ironic that despite this technological freedom, we still build hotels, office towers, shopping malls and restaurants — even the homes where the world’s population lives their lives — that all look fairly alike. IDENTITY Maybe we have forgotten that there are sensitivities to our context that create and shape our identity through these spaces. Human beings — all animals, in fact — are highly sensitive to space. Perhaps we feel lonely, sad, angry, loveless or generally depressed due to our inability to satisfy a deep need to connect and retreat within a space that we can call our own. UNIQUENESS Architecture has the ability to create possible worlds through construction. However, I think that architecture should be a manner of looking at the context again and reinforce the unique contextual elements that are there. The uniqueness should not come from the shape of the space, although this could be an element of the design as well, of course. I think that uniqueness should consider the context to be the starting point. As such, architecture will act as a modal filter of context and will help to create a space, which, when walked through, helps us experience what in the end becomes the space’s identity.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Van Der Architects Japan K.k,
5-28-1-902 Okusawa, Setagaya-ku,
Tokyo,
Tokyo,
Japan
CLIENTELE:
Architecture
Interior design
Landscape
Master planning
Product and furniture design
WorkVitamins
WEB SITE:
htpp://www.vanderarchitects.com
REGISTRATION DATE:
2014-08-28 22:31:33
DESIGNER PROFILE:
Martin van der Linden for Van Der Architects
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